With NBC's consortium of networks, including NBC CNBC, MSBNC, USA and Bravo, you can just about watch any sport at any time you want. From basketball to gymnastics to water polo, it's all there. Even equestrian show jumping on Bravo at 4 a.m., which may or may not be anchored by Inside the Actor's Studio host James Lipton. But despite the expansive network and cable coverage, the time difference between the United States and Greece (anywhere from seven to ten hours) makes following the Olympics a bit of a challenge.

Most of the live events are on early in the morning or mid-day, times when most Americans are not at home watching television. So unless you have both the luxury of staying at home all day watching television and a room in your home with five or six TVs side-by-side, you cannot possibly be following all of the entertaining Olympic action from Athens...

...unless you are a savvy web user. The internet is clearly the best resource for comprehensive coverage of the Athens games. But even the web can be a frustrating spoiler if you do not want to learn results right away so you can go home and watch the day's events at night. All of the primetime coverage on NBC is on tape delay, meaning if you accidentally log on to ESPN.com or NBC's Olympics web site, you will learn all of the results before getting to see the events covered on television. So much for capturing the drama and element of surprise on Paul Hamm's miraculous gold medal comeback in men's gymnsatics on Wednesday afternoon/evening. Oh, and speaking of spoiler alerts, American swimmer Michael
Phelps just won another medal since you started reading this.

The U.S. Women's Basketball Team is not the only group
of Americans that is dominating in Athens right now. The U.S.
Softball Team has outscored its opponents 31-0 in five games, though
that total could have been more if it were not for a "mercy
rule" that is in place to spare the losing team the from shame
and embarrassment of losing by more than eight runs. Three of the five
games have ended early as a result of the rule. Four of the five decisions
have been one-hitters and the Americans have now won 75 games in a row.

The U.S. Women's Soccer Team also won its preliminary division
and continues its quest to win another gold medal and avenge their 2003
World Cup loss to Germany. This could be the last international tournament
for stars Mia Hamm, Brandi
Chastain and Kristine
Lilly, who have been playing together on the international stage since
the late 1980's. The U.S. begins quarterfinal play on Friday at 11am ET.

A pair of American beach volleyball teams are on a collision
course in the medal round. Misty May and Kerry Walsh have not lost
a match in over a year while Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs have also
yet to lose on the fake beach with real sand. And talk about shooting
for gold in Athens... no one has done it straighter than American
Kim Rhode, who won her second career gold and third overall Olympic medal
Wednesday in the women's double

Mending Fences

While the U.S. Women's Basketball, Softball and Soccer Teams
have all won gold medals in recent Olympics, no American woman had ever
won an Olympic fencing medal. Until Tuesday. Then two American women earned medals in the same
event. Portland, Oregon teenager Mariel
Zagunis won the gold medal in the sabre finals while teammate and No.
1 ranked Sada Jacobson of Atlanta, Gorgia took the bronze.

More records are sure to fall and more American women are primed to win gold in the days to come. For complete Olympic results in all sports updated throughout
the Games, check out ESPN's
comprehensive coverage.